A Theory of Policy Justification

Effective accountability may require that officeholders be able to justify their policy choices to their constituents. We develop a game-theoretic model of policy justification in the context of a principal-agent relationship and analyze the equilibrium effects of justification as a strategic choice. Most notably, we show that the effect of justification on the incumbent's policy choice incentives is non-monotonic (U-shaped) in the leeway afforded to justification, reflecting the different ratios of false positives and false negatives that it creates.